The Government has announced a crime crackdown in the wake of Auckland dairy worker Janak Patel's death.
It will pour millions into a fund to install fog cannons as well as significantly switching up the management of its crime prevention fund to try and get more money out the door.
As a community mourns, a Prime Minister can pay respects in many ways. Flowers, empathy, condolences, but the most meaningful is protection.
"Our goal is to make sure people feel safe at work," Jacinda Ardern said on Monday.
As dairy owners shut up shop in protest of crime, the Government put up policy, extending access to Government subsidies for crime prevention tools.
"No one should go to their place of work feeling that they are vulnerable to senseless violence and crime," Ardern said.
The Government's introducing a new untargeted fog cannon subsidy scheme. The Government will pay $4000 toward a fog cannon for any small retail business that feels vulnerable, whether they've been hit before or not.
"Very few businesses where a fog cannon's been deployed have been the subject of revictimisation so they work. That's one of the reasons we want to see their expansion," said Police Minister Chris Hipkins.
But there are only six installers, so the Government isn't expecting huge numbers until at least April.
"We won't be able to do this overnight. There is a supply constraint," said Hipkins.
It's an exercise in expectation management perhaps after a snail's start to the Retail Crime Prevention fund.
More than a hundred stores have had crime prevention installations approved. Between them, 93 fog cannons, 43 bollards and 36 roller doors. But the number of stores that have had the work completed is just eight.
That fund is now being extended to not just ram raid victims but aggravated robbery victims too.
The Prime Minister denied it took a death for them to take notice.
"We are saying if you feel vulnerable we want you to be able to access support," Ardern said.
Over the past year, there have been 514 ram raids resulting in 360 prosecutions and 145 youth services referrals.
"My personal view is the Government has been soft on crime," said National leader Christopher Luxon.
"A primary responsibility of any Government is to make sure it protects its citizens so that they feel safe in their houses, in their businesses, and in their communities."
But Ardern said she "will not stand by" and have the Government called "soft on crime".
"We have been the opposite, firm and fact-based," she said.
But the one thing missing on Monday was tougher penalties.
"I think there is more work for the Government to do to make sure there are consequences, serious consequences for serious repeat offenders," said Luxon.
So expect him to stick to the soft on crime line.
Jenna Lynch Analysis
The Prime Minister denies it took a death for her to act. She says she was working on the third peg of this policy for weeks - that's the $4 million to go to the Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga councils to install bollards, CCTV and lighting.
But there is no denying this tragedy has put the spotlight on the retail crime crisis like never before. It's also put a spotlight on the failure of the Government's initiatives in this space. Eight stores with security work fully completed - they needed to act.
The Prime Minister will be acutely aware of the political danger of this. She'll spend most of her week focussed on crime response, including meeting with Indian leaders, as well as meeting with Patel's famliy.
She also isn't ruling out further action, including taking a closer look at penalities.
